Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 48 (Patreon)

Sakura brought my truck to a stop, and we entered the newly rebuilt barricades. It felt odd to regain control after being away for so long, but the moment I stepped off the truck I saw people looking to me. One peculiar aspect of life after the System was that it was remarkably easy to know when you were being watched. One Examine after another hit me, sending tingles running up my spine in a near-constant buzz. Perhaps someday some form of etiquette might develop around using the examine skill to look at someone, but for now it was a free-for-all.

"Wow, level 24!" A teenager gawked at me, his pimply cheeks wide with the look of a boy who'd just met his favorite rock star.

"Keep leveling, and you'll get here too," I threw the kid a wink.

Gathering my wits, I quickly assessed the situation at the shelter. "Frank, Marcus, I want you two preparing the shelter for an attack. Sakura, you introduce yourself to the other groups who just joined the shelter. Margaret can assist you if you need help."

Sakura bit her lip, one hand going to her horn. "Wouldn't it be better to leave the whole task to Margaret?"

I shook my head. "I want you to do it. It'll be good for you to be seen."

Sakura shrugged sheepishly. She could charge fearlessly into battle, but she was still afraid of public speaking.

After Frank, Marcus, and Sakura took off to fulfill my orders, I turned to Bridget, still lying in the truck bed. I scooped her up in my arms, ignoring the eyes on me as I carried her in.

"What's wrong with her ears?" the same pimply teenager from before asked aloud.

I glanced down at Bridget's ears. The hair around them was sticking up in little tufts, like I was carrying a small blonde fox.

"Nothing. She'll get better," I replied as I carried Bridget to the sick room.

While I was there, I checked on the other patients. Doctor Rosswell was up and about, albeit still missing an arm. He was sitting in his cot with a magazine in his remaining hand, sipping on a cup of coffee as he made himself comfortable.

I checked the title of the magazine he was reading. Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse 101.

"Do they happen to have an issue on werewolves?" I asked as I glanced over at him after setting Bridget down.

"Alas," Doctor Rosswell sighed as he set the magazine aside. "I didn't even think to prepare for a werewolf apocalypse, only a zombie one. Years of preparation, wasted! A medical degree and a decade of studying human anatomy all for nothing. You know, I got kicked out of my first medical school for sneaking in among the corpses to practice my legendary one-strike decapitation technique. At least the System recognized my talent."

I chuckled, though I made a mental note to keep any corpses I wanted intact away from the doctor. "I've heard your clinic was very well stocked with supplies. Even though it's in disarray, I think it might be better to bring them here. We could build something of an armory. Do you mind if we bring them over? I'm sure we can work out a fair value for them."

The doctor waved his hand, not caring in the slightest. "Go ahead. Most of my supplies are on a tiny island I bought outside of Crownhill. I had planned to camp out the zombie apocalypse there while waiting for the undead to decompose. But alas, the only zombies I've found are of the magical variety and immune to mundane biology. To think, years of preparation wasted..."

The doctor let out another long sigh.

I chuckled. "I know the feeling."

Myrina had told me there would be a System , but she'd only told me so much. My ability to prepare had been limited to working on my farmhouse and making sure I was near an area that could be reasonably self-sufficient, given time. That was why I'd moved to Crownhill.

I placed a comforting hand on his good shoulder. "Believe me, a lot of people are anxiously waiting for you to get better. I know you're down an arm, but we desperately need your help. And hell, I'm sure we'll find a healing potion or something that can give you your arm back at some point."

"Think so?" Doctor Rosswell glanced up at me. Strangely, he seemed to be a lot less concerned about losing a limb than most people would have been. "I suppose I can keep lending a hand. Just one though." He held up his one good arm.

"Good. Bridget was bitten by Wolfmen, as were you. I'm not sure how much you've figured out so far, but Bridget says her soul is tethered to a wolf pup. The connection seems to have gotten exponentially stronger to those attacked by the evolved forms of the Wolfmen, the Chaosborn Lycans. I need you to figure out how this connection works and how we might safely break it. Preferably before it changes Bridget much more than it already has."

The two of us stared across the room to Bridget's sleeping form. A pair of furry wolf ears were already visible on the top of her head.

Doctor Rosswell stroked his chin. "I suppose a good challenge is in order. I'll need resources and assistance, though. A spare set of arms would come in handy." He held up his stump.

"I'll send people. You'll have whoever you need," I promised. "Just make sure you figure out what's going on with the wolf thing. We don't have the slightest idea how it works. And remember to be careful. They dragged you away too."

"Yes, yes, I am the most careful doctor to ever grace these lands." Doctor Rosswell waved me off in a way that suggested he had no intention at all of being careful. "Don't worry, I will only take what risks must be taken in pursuit of knowledge!"

I arranged for the corpse of the dead policeman that Sheriff Drayton killed, still lying in the streets outside of Crownhill, to be brought to the shelter.

Afterward, I went to check in on Sakura, who had gathered survivors from some of the other shelters we were integrating into our larger group.

I found Sakura surrounded by a small gathering seated around a fire toward the center of the barricaded city block around the Obelisk. She was speaking and doing a fine job of it as soon as she forced herself out of her shell.

A few people were casting odd glances at her horn, but now that she'd taken the lead, people were taking her at face value. If nothing else, being the sole example of an oni among the crowd made her instantly memorable.

Still, Sakura leaped at the chance to pass the job back to me as soon as she saw me approaching.

"There you are!" Sakura bounced on her toes, skipping over to me and wrapping herself in my arms before planting a kiss on my cheek. "I've finished introducing our new friends to the ins and outs of the shelter and how they can contribute to the defenses."

I nodded to the gathered crowd she'd been talking to. They were all decently high level. Not high enough to take on a Wolfman alone, let alone a Chaosborn Lycan. But they wouldn't be helpless in the face of one either, and if enough of them stuck together, they would hopefully be able to mount a credible defense.

"Great work, Sakura." I returned her warm, affectionate embrace before turning back to the gathered people. "Welcome to the shelter. We're all in this together, and we're going to need everyone's help."

"Is it true that the Wolfmen are coming for us?" A man asked. "I heard they were ferocious beasts the size of a car that could rip a man in two."

"Not quite that big. They're powerful, but not as smart as you or I. I won't lie to you, they're coming for us. But if we work together, we can fend them off, and eventually wipe them out completely."

The man grimaced. "I heard a bunch of them were level fifteen and above. I'm only level nine..."

I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then all you have to do is kill one or two of them. With the level difference, you'll jump ahead by leaps and bounds throughout a single fight."

The man stiffened, then nodded at my encouragement. "It certainly seems like you'd know a thing or two about leveling."

Sakura and I repeated the speech a few more times before sending each group to get outfitted with makeshift weapons and take shifts on the walls. We had enough crafters in the shelter now that the weapons people were creating and putting up for sale in the Obelisk were looking less makeshift and more like a medieval armory.

I even caught sight of the blacksmith working over a grill turned into a forge. He looked to be forging a helmet with nothing but hand tools. Before long, all our forces were going to be looking straight out of the Middle Ages.

But for now, I had another project I needed his help with.

"I need you to make a container for magical energy," I asked.

The blacksmith looked up from his work, annoyed at first until he saw my face and examined me to get my level. After a good look, he straightened and the annoyed look fell from his face. I was pretty sure I recognized him as one of the survivors from the law office, and he must have recognized me as well.

"Like a metal ball?" The blacksmith asked.

"A net of wires will do. It doesn't have to be good. It just needs to contain mana for a while. I'm an arcanist, you see, and I want to make some Mana Bombs." I launched into an explanation of what a Mana Bomb was.

After I got the idea across, he and I went to the Obelisk and bought some of the scrap metal for sale there. Scavengers had been gathering anything they could get their hands on to list for sale in the Obelisk, and there was plenty of copper wire there.

I fashioned the first Mana Bomb, and he did the rest, saving me time to focus on enchanting them. He had a few assistants too. None of them had enough contribution points to purchase the Blacksmith job, but I was pretty sure they were watching and practicing in the hope that the System would award the job to them anyway through hard work.

With a dozen assistants to help me, I worked even quicker than I had with Gobgob and the tribe of goblins. The first Mana Bomb was ready shortly after, and as I started catching up with what had been assembled, I realized all I needed was a small scrap of enchantment-ready metal to do my part in creating a Mana Bomb. Everything else could be done by regular craftsmen.

I got to work, cranking off a hundred of them before the sun set. We had just started distributing the bombs to the people guarding the barricades when a ferocious howl echoed through the night.

"Sakura?" I called. She was nearby and hurried to my side upon hearing my voice. "Could you please check that out? Besides me, you're the only one here capable of facing a band of hungry Chaosborn Lycans and escaping."

Sakura nodded. The guards at the barricade opened the gates for her. I handed her a few mana bombs, just in case more of those shadows appeared, and also to test their effectiveness against the Chaosborn Lycans if possible.

The enemies formerly known as Wolfmen had merged with shadow creatures, which were vulnerable to magic damage. Had the Chaosborn Lycans retained this weakness? There was only one way to find out.

Not long after Sakura departed, another howl reverberated through the night. The wolves were once again at our gates, and it was up to those of us prepared to fight to keep them at bay.